Written by Emily Card |

photo by Emily Card

For young children going to school for the first time, kindergarten can be a scary thing.   It’s important that children are prepared and ready to take on this new experience.  However, teachers of the Joel School have found that fewer and fewer children go to pre-school to acquire all of the needed skills.  Because of this, a group of teachers, including Mrs.Nunan, a culinary and child-development  teacher at The Morgan School, gathered together to solve this problem.  The solution was to have Mrs.Nunan’s classes create booklets and small bags for the children who have not developed those particular skills.  Other assistance also came from Coralie Williams, a teacher from the Red Barn.

Mrs.Nunan explained that children should be able to cut on a straight line, tie their shoes, thread beads on a string, and hold scissors when they enter kindergarten.  To help young children learn these skills, Mrs. Nunan’s students placed  the following items into the bags: beads and lace, scissors, and play dough to develop motor skills.  Along with these items is an activity book filled with activities for  the children to  further develop their thinking and motor skills.  Activities include going on hikes and explaining what they see, or going to the beach and exploring the shallow waters.

Mrs.Nunan’s students were perfect candidates for putting these bags and booklets together.  Sine they have all taken child development courses, they were able to put what they learned, as far as what elementary kids and kindergarten students should be able to accomplish, to a real life situation.   Mrs.Nunan proudly said she was looking forward to carryng this activity out in future years.